Free Republic

The prices of rent-stabilized apartments are set to go up in the Big Apple after the city’s Rent Guidelines Board voted in favor of potential hikes Wednesday. The panel, which is charged with deciding rates for the Big Apple’s regulated apartments, agreed to rent increases between 1.75% to 4.75% for one-year leases and between 4.75% to 7.75% for two-year leases. The board, which has increased rents by a combined 9% in the last three years, will finalize the rates in a June vote. Any approved hikes would affect rent-stabilized leases that start on or after Oct. 1.

Chuck Schumer announces that the SAVE Act, which requires proof of citizenship to register to vote nationwide, is DONE. Won't go to Trump's desk. DOA. It needs 60 votes. Schumer turned around, looked at Republicans, and gloated as he said this.

Illegal aliens cost Texas hospitals more than $100 million in just a single month, brand new data from the Lone Star State shows. Texas hospitals are on the hook for a $121.8 million bill incurred by illegal aliens across 31,000 visits in November 2024 alone, according to data collected by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (THHSC). The findings came after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an order directing THHSC to collect and provide quarterly data on the cost of illegal aliens to the state’s hospitals and the number of visits from illegal aliens. The first full year of...

Feb. 28 was one of the darkest days for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion three years earlier. An Oval Office visit by President Volodymyr Zelensky meant to win favor with President Trump turned into a televised shouting match, prompting Mr. Trump to banish his guest from the White House without even serving him a planned lunch. Mr. Trump was already a deep skeptic of U.S. support for Ukraine. But after the disastrous meeting with Mr. Zelensky, he accelerated his diplomacy with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, drafting a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine that offered major concessions...

SEATTLE (AP) — Inside a Virginia courthouse, three immigration agents in plainclothes — one masked — detained a man who had just had misdemeanor assault charges dismissed. They declined to show identification or a warrant to the man, and one threatened to prosecute horrified witnesses who tried to intervene, cellphone video shows. In North Carolina, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed it arrested four people at a county courthouse, according to local media reports, prompting the sheriff to express concerns about a lack of communication from the agency as well as about disruption to court proceedings. Inside a courthouse in...

America is to scale back its role in mediating peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, the US State Department has said, as JD Vance admitted the war will “not end any time soon”. Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokeswoman, said the US would change “the methodology of how we contribute” to talks and will no longer “fly around the world at the drop of a hat” for discussions.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, is looking for support from fellow Democrats with her eyes on a possible run for the top Democratic spot on the House Oversight Committee, according to reports. Although Semafor first reported about Crockett’s plans, Politico also reported that two people familiar with the matter claim the congresswoman has been making calls, sending text messages and having conversations on the floor in search of support for her quest to take the seat held by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va. *** Still, Crockett reportedly told her colleagues she is “made for the moment,” the sources told the publication, referring...

More than 80 Harvard faculty members pledged to donate 10 percent of their salaries for up to a year to support the University in its resistance against the Trump administration’s attempts to exact concessions and freeze billions in federal funding. The group is still collecting pledges, but faculty members’ commitments currently amount to more than $2 million, according to Government professor Ryan D. Enos. The faculty sent a letter outlining their planned donation to University President Alan M. Garber ’76 Wednesday afternoon. “If we as a faculty are asking the University administration to resist the Trump administration’s attacks on academic...

The minerals deal was enough to entice President Donald Trump to cave, siding with Kiev and permitting the first US sale of military equipment to Ukraine since taking office. Trump has been extremely critical of Zelensky since the war began, consistently warning Zelensky that he has blood on his hands and must end the war. Congress approved a $50 million defense package to Ukraine through direct commercial sales (DCS). Trump is a businessman first and foremost—the mineral deal had to be approved before he would approve of any aid package. The United States now has preferential rights to extract minerals...

When Charles Read went to renew his passport, he got a notification that there was a warrant out for his arrest. A woman named Katherine Jensen told police that Read (an ex boyfriend from 20 years ago) had kicked in her door and choked her out, trying to steal the keys to her truck, and when he was unsuccessful, he fled on foot. VIDEO AT LINK............. At first Charles Read thought someone was pulling his leg, but you can understand why he didn't notice -- because he's been paralyzed from the waist down for 25 years. But when Read tried...

President Donald Trump on Friday said he is "taking away" Harvard's tax exempt status. "It's what they deserve,” he said in a Truth Social post. The decision will likely face legal challenges. Harvard’s president has said revoking the university's tax-exempt status would be unlawful and endanger "our ability to carry out our educational mission." Trump previously called for Harvard to lose its tax exempt status after the university said it would not comply with the administration's series of demands, including actions on antisemitism and the use of DEI on campus.

Reform UK has beaten the Conservatives in Staffordshire's local elections and secured the votes needed to claim control of the county council.

~A headline from Scotland's Daily Record: Three masked children held captive in 'house of horrors' since Covid pandemic So who was holding them captive? Well, that would be their German dad and American mom. Where was this house of horrors? In the couple's second home, in the Spanish town of Fitoria, on the outskirts of Oviedo, capital of the Principality of Asturias. It's a spacious property with commanding views over the metropolis [see picture above] in a neighbourhood where such agreeable accommodations can set you back a million euros. Nevertheless, a lady became concerned when she heard children's voices coming...

Key Points: -With a slowdown and a job market flooded with talent, younger workers are turning to an unlikely source to help them with the competition: their parents. -One in four Gen Zers have brought a parent to a job interview over the past year, according to a new survey of nearly 1,500 Gen Zers by ResumeTemplates.com. -Roughly one-quarter have had their parents submit job applications on their behalf. College graduations are in full swing and so are job interviews for Gen Z candidates. But with a slowdown in hiring by many companies and a job market flooded with certain...

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aiming to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR as he alleged "bias" in the broadcasters' reporting. The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies "to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS" and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. The White House, in a social media posting announcing the signing, said the outlets "receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.'" It's the latest move by Trump and his administration to...

Employers in the United States added 177,000 workers to their payrolls in April, the Department of Labor said Friday, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent, defying predictions of labor market sluggishness following President Trump’s announcement of tariffs. Economists had been expecting 130,000 jobs and an unemployment rate unchanged at 4.2 percent. The prior month’s jobs figure was revised down to 185,000 from 228,000

On Thursday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) reacted to President Donald Trump’s announcement of secondary sanctions on purchasers of Iranian oil by stating that he generally supports pressuring the regime and “there is bipartisan support for increasing pressure to get Iran to the table, to try and get back into a more comprehensive deal, one that doesn’t have sunsets, one that includes some of their secondary support for terrorist proxies in the region, particularly, including the Houthis and their ballistic missile program.” Co-host Kailey Leinz asked, “Well, and as we consider the issues your committee...

Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has been designated as right-wing extremist by the country's federal office for the protection of the constitution. "The ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order," the domestic intelligence agency said in a statement. The AfD came second in federal elections in February, winning a record 152 seats in the 630-seat parliament with 20.8% of the vote. The parliament, or Bundestag, will hold a vote next week to confirm conservative leader Friedrich Merz as chancellor, heading a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats. The...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) receive taxpayer funds through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options. Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence. At the very least, Americans have the right to expect...

In response to ongoing concerns about Boeing’s delays, President Donald J. Trump has asked L3Harris Technologies to provide an interim presidential aircraft by the end of the year, according to The Wall Street Journal. This decision marks a significant change in how presidential flights will be handled. Boeing, which was awarded a $3.9 billion contract to deliver two next-generation Air Force One aircraft, has fallen significantly behind schedule by years and is now billions of dollars over budget. Trump’s newly selected contractor, L3Harris, headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, is tasked with retrofitting a previously Qatari-owned Boeing 747 as a temporary command...